1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of games. More particularly, the invention relates to games in which a projectile is impelled over a playing surface as in playing miniature golf, hockey, and pool or billiards.
2. Prior Art
A pre-examination search was performed prior to the preparation of the accompanying patent application. The following represents a listing of the prior art which was evaluated prior to deciding to go forward with the subject application:
Design Patents--U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 204,890 and 219,460: These represent ornamental designs for golf putters.
Utility Patents--U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,039,776 and 3,194,564: Each represent a golf club having means thereon whose purpose is to improve the golfer's swing and to increase the accuracy with which the golf ball is driven away from the striking face of the club.
Utility Patents--U.S. Pat. No. 711,979 issued to Knight; U.S. Pat. No. 1,548,068 issued to Sullivan; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,755 issued to Mishler are all directed to games and game apparatus. The '068 and '755 patents both utilize hand manipulated impelling instruments. The '979 patent moves the game pieces in the same fashion as is done in a game of tiddly winks.
A game projectile or puck is disclosed in each of U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,511,147 issued to Braun; 2,623,748 issued to Lucero; 3,784,204 issued to Felber; and 2,727,744 issued to Watson. All of these projectiles comprise right sections of cylindrical configurations. The '147, '204 and '744 patents provide ball thrust bearings for moving the projectile across the playing surface. The '748 projectile of Lucero moves across the playing surface on wear resistent patches.
None of the prior art evaluated disclosed a polyhedral projectile having a striking surface comprised of various planes and vertices coupled with support means all of which act in combination to confound the players ability to direct the projectile along a desired path.
Various games exist wherein the player impells a projectile across a playing surface in a prescribed manner and deriving a game score for properly placing the projectile at specified locations on the playing surface. Such games are represented by the familiar miniature golf courses in which a golf ball is impelled along the playing surface and directed to various recesses along the pathway defined by the playing surface. Hockey represents another such sport. Here a puck, a right section of a circular cylinder, is impelled across a playing surface with the intent of placing the puck within a goal defended by an opponent player. Of the same genre are the pool or billiard games in which a pool ball is projected across the surface of a pool or billiard table with the specific intent of placing the ball at its desired location either directly or indirectly by causing the projectile to rebound from the playing surface boundaries or from other game projectiles on the playing surface.
All such games are characterized by hand wielded implements used to strike the projectile and impell it across the playing surface. The projectiles themselves are all configured so as to have spherical or cylindrical shapes such that when struck by the impelling instrumentation, for example, the face of the golf club, hockey stick, or the pool cue, the force of the impelling blow is directed along a radius through the center of the playing projectile. The purpose of directing the impelling force through the center of the playing projectile is to assure a true flight path across the playing surface in the direction intended by the player. Thus, as the skill of the player increases, the projectile is impelled to the desired location with increasing accuracy, role of chance being minimized as the player continues the game.
Where skill and practice determine the outcome of the game and the effects of chance are minimized, new players find it difficult to learn the game unless they are able to find a more skillful player who is predisposed to teach a novice or until they locate an instructor whom they may hire to teach them the fine points of the game. The sight of a skillful player searching for a "worthy" opponent becomes a familiar one and his avoidance of the novice player is readily apparent.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to emphasize the element of chance and to reduce the effect of players skill and practice so as to provide a game which may by played enjoyably by all players regardless of their age, manual dexterity, or familiarity with the game.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a playing projectile which will not move across the playing surface in the precise path planned by the player when he imparts his impelling stroke to the projectile.
It is a most specific object of the invention to provide a game projectile which is a polyhedron independently supported above the means by which it moves across the playing surface.
It is an even more specific objective of the invention that such a polyhedral projectile be free to rotate about said independent support.